Clarence Mason
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| Herman Stevens | |
|---|---|
| Statistics | |
| Ring name(s) | Clarence Mason J. Biggs |
| Billed height | 5 ft 9 in |
| Billed weight | 170 lbs |
| Resides | South Beach, Florida, U.S. |
| Billed from | Sioux City, Iowa |
| Trained by | World Wrestling Federation |
| Debut | May 1996 |
| Retired | 1999 |
Herman Stevens is a former American professional wrestling manager, who is best known as Clarence Mason from his time with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) from the mid to late 90's. In 1999, Stevens also appeared in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as J. Biggs.
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[edit] Early life
As a child, Stevens had always wanted to be a WWE Superstar. For Herman, the childhood dream almost didn’t happen. With no prior experience in the business, getting a foot in the door was difficult for the aspiring law school student. While in college, Stevens unsuccessfully attempted to obtain an internship with WCW. When that didn’t work, he turned to a Hall of Fame friend for help. When Stevens was in law school, he befriended Ernie Ladd. Ladd managed to get Stevens a meeting with WWE. He went to New York to meet with Vince McMahon and was signed to a contract.
[edit] World Wrestling Federation
Stevens entered the WWF in 1996 as Clarence Mason, a lawyer primarily introduced to play off the publicity lawyers had gotten during the on going O.J. Simpson trial. The name Clarence Mason may have came from the Disbarred New York Civil Rights Attorney C. Vernon Mason or Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, whilst his character and speaking style were based around Johnnie Cochran.
Clarence Mason was introduced as the legal counsel for Jim Cornette, who was attempting to reverse a decision at an In Your House pay per view event that had seen Owen Hart and The British Bulldog, whom Cornette was managing, lose the WWF Tag Team Titles. Following this, Mason continued his association with Cornette and his stable of wrestlers.
Shortly after, Mason went off on his own as a manager with his first client being Crush, who was portraying an ex-convict character. In March 1995, Adams was arrested, and subsequently jailed, for purchasing steroids and owning an illegal stun gun, while home in Hawaii. After a brief stint in jail, Adams was brought back to the WWF at the beginning of the Monday Night Wars in 1996 with his incarceration being introduced as part of a storyline on Monday Night RAW. Upon his return, the WWF gave Adams Clarence Mason as a manager, Mason’s gimmick was that of a lawyer thereby tying it in with Adams time in jail. Shortly after his return to the WWF he was made a member of the Nation of Domination (NOD) along with Faarooq and Savio Vega. Faarooq eventually fired all members of the Nation of Domination, except D'Lo Brown, in order to re-start the group. Mason, without a client to manage, was written off television and released from his contract.
[edit] World Championship Wrestling
Stevens resurfaced in WCW as J. Biggs, where he managed Chris "Champagne" Kanyon. A few months later, Kanyon dropped his association with Biggs, which left him to search for a new client. This time, Biggs picked the newly-established tag team of Harlem Heat 2000, which consisted of Stevie Ray (Lane Huffman) and Big T (Tony Norris). Ironically, Biggs spent much of his WWF career feuding with Norris as Ahmed Johnson. The team feuded with Booker T. Biggs gained a court order against Booker T (storyline), which stated he could not use the letter "T". Shortly thereafter, Biggs was released from his contract and left the wrestling business.
[edit] Post-wrestling career
After leaving WCW, Stevens headed to south Florida and returned to his original profession, a practicing attorney.
